Al-Hasawi responds to MacAnthony after demands that deals are honoured

Alan Swann

Nottingham Forest owner Fawaz Al-Hasawi has promised to pay what his club owes Peterborough United for the transfer of Britt Assombalonga ‘imminently.’

Posh chairman Darragh MacAntony delivered an angry assault on Al-Hasawi earlier this week after Forest failed to pay a due instalment, believed to £1.5 million, on the agreed transfer fee of £5.5 million.

The chairman’s decision to make his frustration public appears to have had the desired effect.

Yesterday (February 4) Al Hasawi, whose club are banned from signing players on a permanent basis because of a transfer embargo, said: “I can assure you that any outstanding payments will be resolved imminently.

“I turned down bids for (our) players on deadline day which would have funded the running of the club for many months. I rejected them because I’m confident we can resolve our situation without weakening our squad.”

MacAnthony claimed it was not the first time that Forest had made late payments regarding the Assombalonga fee.

“The failure to honour payments to our club put us in a terrible predicament,” MacAnthony raged.

“We failed to make any new signings on deadline day for that one reason. It had nothing to with needing players to leave the club first.

“It was a large payment and it wasn’t the first time it had happened as they were late making a payment in August. It’s also a shambles the Football League allow this nonsense to carry on.

“I’m sure we are not the only club that it has happened to, but the knock on effect is outrageous and doesn’t help a club like ours.

“I don’t like having to share this on twitter, but our fans deserve to know why transfer deadline day was quiet and I have now given other chairman fair warning that I won’t be messed around.”

Posh had placed two bids for players on transfer deadline day, but had to withdraw them when it became obvious Forest were not going to cough up the cash they owed.

Only 10 League One clubs completed transfers on the last day of business and only Sheffield United and Oldham paid fees. The rest were loan moves or free transfers.

Posh had hoped that winger Nathaniel Mendez-Laing would leave the club. Two clubs wanted the 23 year-old on loan, but he refused to budge. It’s understood Posh received no bids for any other member of their first team squad apart from Tyrone Barnett who joined League Two leaders Shrewsbury.

Gaby Zakuani will return to the Posh squad next week once his involvement with the African Cup of Nations is over.

His DR Congo side were playing Ivory Coast in the semi-final on Wednesday.